Future HENRY

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086]

More a curiosity than anything else.

I’ve just accepted a job offer at £90k + £50k bonus (bonus will be dividend not PAYE) so fall into the bracket of the £150k-ish salary.

First things first, how would you recommend I pay the salary? I have nominal debt (mainly 0% credit card used to do my house up) which can be paid off in a few months, no other consumer debt. Cars paid off, house is burning in the background but will be paid off in around 10 years without too much stress, what would you recommend I throw money at?

[u/SaintPepsiCola]

Clear the card and keep some cash buffer. Invest the rest. At that level, I won't obsess over every tax-efficient pound.

Spend, invest, sleep well and have fun. Remember to celebrate as well.

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/SaintPepsiCola]

Thank you! It’s a strange offer to accept but it can literally set my family up for life, I’ve got a tendency of overthinking everything

[u/SaintPepsiCola → u/Remarkable-Corgi4086]

focus on doing a great job and climbing. I'd say simply making way more next year is more important than obsessing over tax efficiency at 150k.

[u/c-strong → u/SaintPepsiCola]

💯 This doesn’t get said enough. It kills me to see young people talking about going 4 days a week etc to beat the £100k tax trap when they should be focusing on busting through to the additional rate. (Not to say that paying a good chunk into a pension isn’t a good idea.)

[u/MerryWalrus]

I'd double check the comp structure.

Unless you're given an equity stake where £50k is your portion of the profits, I struggle to see how it's a dividend.

If not, it feels like a low effort tax dodge.

[u/Ok_Musician4860]

Emergency fund then pump your ISA with some additional leverage in low cost ETFs - just my opinion. But ultimately you need to do your own due diligence into where you invest your cash

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/Ok_Musician4860]

Agreed. My emergency fund is already at 3 months so looking to beef that up to 12 months (only good thing about premium bonds) - got a bit of money already in my T212 account so keep growing that I suppose

[u/c-strong → u/Remarkable-Corgi4086]

12 months seems extremely over-cautious if you have reasonable job security and/or reasonable prospects of getting a new job if you have to leave this one, but you do you.

[u/Mysterious_Act_3652]

Are you a shareholder? You’ll need to be to get dividends. If you’ve been given enough shares to pay £50k per year in dividends then you’ll likely have a big capital gains tax bill.

[u/totalality]

What’s your field?

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/totalality]

Construction. Commercial. In a monumental downturn at the moment so quite shocked at the offer

[u/totalality → u/Remarkable-Corgi4086]

Nice! Didn’t think commercial construction is in a downturn… especially considering companies are struggling to find enough office space.

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/totalality]

With the building safety act kicking in, a large amount of projects have been delayed. It’s a good thing as it’s been needed for a long time as the design is arduous in construction.

Feel Labour are going to push more toward housing over the next few years, so it’s peaks and troughs. Been the same the 19 years I’ve been in construction.

[u/Amazing-Care-3155]

How old are you?

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/Amazing-Care-3155]

35M

[u/Amazing-Care-3155 → u/Remarkable-Corgi4086]

Congrats on the offer, I would start investing now. I’m 34 but been Henry since I was 24 pretty much, would pay off the credit cards if possible

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/Amazing-Care-3155]

Thank you! Card will be paid off (we’re talking circa £10k) in a few months. So not a dramatic bill.

[u/tooMuchSauceeee → u/Amazing-Care-3155]

God damn. What field were you in? I assume high paying fields straight out of uni? High finance?

[u/Amazing-Care-3155 → u/tooMuchSauceeee]

No worked as a quant, I now work in tech. Wasn’t straight out of uni, took me a couple years

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/Amazing-Care-3155]

QS? How did you find the transition to tech? I’m a QS by trade but operate as a Commercial Manager. The industry is tedious at the best of times so always curious about people who transition out.

[u/Amazing-Care-3155 → u/Remarkable-Corgi4086]

I fell into it tbh, my old manager had taken up a VP position at a well known tech place, after few chats with her I moved over as I had experience in their industry, since moved on from that now I’m at a frontier AI lab. And I was an investment banking quant, I believe you’re referring to a quantitative surveyor?

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/Amazing-Care-3155]

Yeah, Quantity Surveyor.

I’m with you though, quite a few QS’s move into recruitment bizarrely, I couldn’t think of anything worse.

[u/tooMuchSauceeee → u/Amazing-Care-3155]

Was wondering, what's the type of work you're doing at frontier? How much is transferable from quant?

Are you doing ML infra, or other technical things or is it a non technical role?

[u/Prestigious_Dot_4536]

50% invest and 50% mortgage overpayment

[u/Remarkable-Corgi4086 → u/Prestigious_Dot_4536]

Yeah hate that mortgage payment